Indirect Tax Reforms : Challenge and Response Book

Contents: Acknowledgements. Foreword. Introduction. I. 1. Milestones in Central Excise. 2. Growth of Central Excise Revenue and industrial growth. 3. Customs Duties–rationalization and restructuring. 4. Indirect Tax Reforms: challenge of widening the tax base. 5. VAT: the international experience. 6. VAT: the Indian experience. 7. Modernization of the Tax Audit System. 8. Central Excise computerization–vision and action plan. 9. Fiscal reforms and the petroleum sector. 10. Fiscal reforms and the textile sector. II. 11. Shome Committee Report–a critique. 12. Kelkar Committee and Indirect Taxes–a critique. 13. Expansion of Service Tax and integration with Central Excise as “Goods and Services Tax”. 14. State VAT–issues of implementation. 15. Indirect tax administration–future directions for reform. 16. Some important issues for the future. Appendix: 1. Vision statement of the CBEC. 2. Tables 1 to 14. Index. 

“The book seeks to examine the reforms in three individual segments of Indirect Taxation-Central Excise, Customs and Service Tax. These together constitute 60% of the total tax revenues in the country. While the three taxes are all indirect taxes, the dynamics of reform in each of these individual segments has been different. The book seeks to examine the tax reforms in each. These reforms have influenced the fortunes of a large number of manufacturing sectors. However, in respect of two–petroleum and textiles–the two influence has been significant. In two separate chapters, the past impact, the present changes and the future course of action have been outlined. The book also has separate chapters on Central VAT and the proposed State VAT.

The book is structurally divided into two parts. Part I deals with the past and present reform measures, while Part II examines the future course of Indirect Tax Reforms. The book argues that tax reform is a “Work-in-progress”. Expansion of the tax base is an important theme in all the chapters. One immediate fallout of the tax reform in India has been the declining tax to GDP ratio, but this may improve with policy initiatives to widen the tax base especially in the area of Service Tax, phasing away of Indirect Tax exemptions and nationwide implementation of State VAT.

The book also looks at the Indirect Tax administration. Design of a modern tax administration is extremely important to make the tax administration more assessee friendly and revenue efficient. By laying out a road map for the future, the book offers useful suggestions for Indirect Tax Reforms to the policy makers.” (jacket)